France's Le Pen seeks to keep presidency hopes alive after election ban

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen fought Tuesday to keep alive her dream of winning the French presidency after a court handed her a five-year ban on running for office.

The sentence after being found guilty of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament on behalf of her National Rally (RN) party stunned Le Pen as the judge ordered the ban come into force with immediate effect. She had denied all the charges.

The punishment also came as a new thunderbolt to French politics and judicial authorities condemned threats made against the judges in the case.

If it stands, their verdict would mean that Le Pen would be unable to launch a fourth campaign for the presidency. Analysts said the 2027 election would be her best-ever chance.

In a TV interview, she remained defiant, insisting that there could still be time for an appeals court to overturn the verdict.

Should she be unable to stand, RN party leader Jordan Bardella, 29, would be the likely candidate. Le Pen says he has the "capacity" to be president.

In a febrile international climate, the verdict was condemned by the Kremlin, billionaire tycoon Elon Musk and hard-right European politicians ranging from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to Geert Wilders of the Netherlands.

US President Donald Trump's administration also weighed in with State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce saying: "Exclusion of people from the political process is particularly concerning given the aggressive and corrupt lawfare waged against President Trump here in the United States."

Le Pen was also given a four-year prison term by the Paris court. Two years of the term were suspended and the other two would be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet.

Twenty-four people -- including Le Pen -- were convicted -- all of them RN party officials or assistants.

'Reserved for authoritarian regimes' 

Le Pen said she would appeal the "political decision", and vowed that in "no way" would she retire from political life, in a combative interview with the TF1 network late Monday.

"I'm not going to let myself be eliminated like this. I'm going to pursue whatever legal avenues I can. There is a small path. It's certainly narrow, but it exists," she said.

An appeal would be lodged "as quickly as possible" and Le Pen said that the judiciary should "get a move on".

Describing herself as "favourite" to win the 2027 election, Le Pen characterised the judge who delivered the verdict as saying: "'I do not want Marine Le Pen elected'" and lashed out at "'practices we thought were for authoritarian regimes".

"I am going to appeal because I am innocent," Le Pen said, while acknowledging that as things stood now "I am eliminated" from the presidential race.

'At the ballot box'

Le Pen left the court before the judge announced the prison sentence, and a crisis meeting was convened at her party's Paris headquarters.

The RN has been the biggest single party in France's parliament since the 2024 legislative elections. Polls have predicted Le Pen would easily top the first round of voting in 2027 to enter a run-off round.

Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron cannot run again because of a constitutional two-term limit.

The reaction from Moscow was swift, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying: "More and more European capitals are going down the path of violating democratic norms."

Tesla's billionaire owner Musk, who has backed a far-right party in Germany and plays a major role in Trump's administration, said the move would "backfire, like the legal attacks against President Trump".

In France, the parliamentary leader of the right-wing Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez, said "political debates should be decided at the ballot box".

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou was "troubled" by the verdict, a person close to him told AFP, asking not to be named.

The Supreme Council of the Judiciary, which names and monitors the conduct of judges, issued a rare statement however to condemn what it called "virulent threats" made against the judges in the case.

It also expressed concern at the criticism of "the independence of judicial authority".

Justice Minister Gerard Darmanin also denounced "unacceptable" threats made against the judges.

Le Pen took over the former National Front (FN) from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2011 and has since sought to clean up its image. Her father, who died in January, was often accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments.